Diantan Shuicheng Lisu Village

Cultural heritage

Shuicheng natural village belongs to Lianzu village, Diantan town, Tengchong, 65 kilometres from the county seat and sharing 24 kilometres of frontier with Burma; its people are wholly Lisu, a typical Lisu old village on the China-Burma border. In 2013 it entered the second list of Chinese Traditional Villages, and its traditional-culture reserve is on Yunnan's second ICH list under the guardianship of the Tengchong Cultural Centre. The village keeps its stilt houses, Lisu dress and weaving, old beliefs and border-garrison heritage, a living sample for the study of cross-border peoples and frontier culture.

Visiting: Following the border road into Shuicheng, one sees stilt wooden houses climbing the slope and Lisu women in woven skirts at work in the fields; at festival time the Daogan and Kuoshi rites — bare feet up the blade-pole, treading the sea of fire — are breathtaking, a rare place to meet Lisu custom and frontier heritage at first hand.